Scooter w. car-license

News Feb. 2013:

To our knowledge it is now possible in all EU-countries to exchange the driverlicense to one with group 'AM' marked.

"New rules"In 2006 the police on Samos gave the mc rental agencies a inculcation, that it was not allowed to rent scooters and small mc's to people only having driver licence for car (class B).Drivers were stopped and warnings and penalties were given.

We are sure, that many visitors on Samos will be very disappointed, when they arrive and want to rent scooters as they have done may be for several years!

To us on Samostour.dk it is complete unintelligible that any authority want to reduce the tourists possibility to get around and explore the island and f. ex. drive to and from the many beaches.

In Denmark and some other countries the driver licence class 'B' gives the right to drive car, 3-wheel MC and big moped. This licence have been valid for many years on Samos to rent and drive scooters, mopeds and mc < 50ccm.

Greece is a member of EU, and there are some rules about EU-citizen's free travel and rights, but it seems that they do not care, and make their own rules.

Below you can see The European Commissions (incl. Greece) agreement concerning driver licence.

What have Samostour.dk done?We have contacted the Danish police (all way up), The Ministery of Justice and all other relevant authorities to see if it was possible to add the infomation about what a 'class B' licence cover to the driver licence or to get a official document explaining it in English or Greek.But the Danish authorities follow the EU-rules, so it was not possible.The Greek Embassy in Dk promised, that if we had the law about driver licence translated by an approved translator, then they would certify it. The translation is made, but this might only help tourists from DK.

GNTO: Greek National Tourism Organisation is contacted to see, if they could help. (no answer)Ministry for the Aegean & Island Policy is contacted. Ministry of Transport & Communications is contacted. The Greek Minister of Justice is contacted in person.No reply from any of the Greek authorities - not even a confirmation for receiving our mail!

The final step may be a complain to The European Commission because we find, that this is an obstruction against EU-citizen's free travel and rights.

Any help and proposal to solve the situation will be highly appreciated!We have good reasons to believe, that the transport by scooter is so important tovisitors, that this situation (if persists) will reduce the number of tourists on Samos!

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News June 2008:We have just been informed, that some rental shops are very dissatisfied with our information about the 'scooter-rules' - they claim that our information is harmful to their business. If this really was our intention we had used our information and published a 'black- and whitelist' about the hire shops. Our goal has allways been to help the tourists, the rental shops and the tourism on Samos.To illustrate this, we here bring a few quotes from our letters to the responsible Greek authorities:- "The effect of this (enforcement of the law /added by webmaster) will be both an economical catastrophe for many of the small family driven rental agencies, and have a serious negative influence on the tourism".- "The authorities behaviour will absolutely not have any positive effect on the tourism".- "Thousands of tourists will be very disappointed when they come to Samos, and the possibility to rent a scooter is stopped. Due to the limited public transportation it is very important for the tourists to have the possibility to rent scooters and small mc's as transportation between hotels and beaches, and for short sightseeing tours".- "We hope, that someone have the courage, the authority and the will to solve this problem, so the tourists can have a lot of good experiences, and the reputation of Samos as a wonderful place will be kept and grow".

'Samostour' will with pleasure cooperate with all, who want to solve the problem !

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News July 2007:We have tried everything possible to solve the problem - without succes!Many shops will still rent you a scooter on a car-license, but do'nt do it!!!In case of an accident the driver will be taken to court/jail and will have topay a big penalty and pay for damages on things and persons.NO INSURANCE COVER ANYTHING !!If you are lucky you must pay about 300 Euro if you are stopped by the police,but in case of an accident your bill could be 200-300.000 Euro or more !After 1 weeks negotiation with the Greek police we have given up,and solved our own problem by getting a MC license.

PRIVATE MEANS OF TRANSPORTDRIVING LICENCEThe principle of mutual recognition of licences issued by Member States is enshrined in current Community legislation. This means that if you have a valid driving licence issued by a Member State of the European Union it will be valid, throughout the EU, for the class or classes of vehicles for which it was issued in the Member State of origin.